The first Sanibel Island resort to completely rebuild following Hurricane Ian — and the first to be built from scratch on the island in about 40 years — did more than just celebrate a construction milestone.

Shalimar Beach Resort, 2823 W. Gulf Drive, announced Feb. 28 it would be taking reservations for the fall.

Stevens Construction commemorated the topping off of construction on the 33-room resort fronting the Gulf of Mexico, recently renamed Gulf of America by President Donald Trump.

Shalimar relaunched its website and began accepting reservations for October and beyond following a soft launch slated for Sept. 28, the third anniversary of when Hurricane Ian destroyed the resort, originally built in 1959.

“I’m excited,” Shalimar owner Sean Niesel said. “We’ve got four generations of Niesels who are excited. It’s just a lot of planning and logistics.”

While Stevens Construction shifts to doing more work on the resort’s interior, Niesel has been traveling to North Carolina, scouting out furniture and kitchen equipment to purchase.

All 33 rooms will be equipped with a kitchenette, which includes a full-size microwave, refrigerator and stove.

There will be 21 hotel rooms, 10 one-bedroom villas and two two-bedroom villas spread across seven buildings comprising a little more than 52,000 square feet and amounting to about a $15 million construction project.

Room rates start at $389 in October and gradually increase throughout tourist season.

“It’s going to be competitive with other places on West Gulf,” Niesel said. “It’s super exciting. It’s starting to feel real. The bones of all 33 units are there. You can see the property coming back to life.”

Mark Stevens, president of Stevens Construction, never had presided over building anything directly on the Gulf, which made for some challenges.

“Starting off the project, when you’re building at the water, we had a few setbacks,” Stevens said. “We had to de-water quite a bit more than we thought. When you’re digging, and the water starts coming up, you have to start de-watering. And then we got whacked by three storms. Although they didn’t create too much damage, they did flood our site. And that was a challenge.”

The biggest challenge, Stevens said, has been getting subcontractors and equipment onto and off of the island in a timely fashion because of the traffic situation.

“If you leave early in the morning, you can make it in 45 minutes or so,” Stevens said. “If you pick the wrong time, it can easily take you two hours. Not only to get on the island, but to get off the island.”

Enticing the subcontractors required some extra convincing because of those factors. There are about 50 to 60 construction workers on-site, depending on the day.

“Most of our subcontractors are getting out there early and then trying to leave before traffic gets bad,” Stevens said. He didn’t want to complain too much about the traffic, either.

“That’s what spurs our economy,” Stevens said. “If it wasn’t for this traffic, there wouldn’t be a need for a Shalimar. That’s what I’m constantly reminding our team.”

Stevens Construction also partnered with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“We have a strong safety program,” Stevens said. “It’s super important to the culture of our company. It’s called an OSHA partnership. They make scheduled inspections out there, and they can make random inspections. We’re learning a lot from this, and we can apply this to our other projects.”

The new Shalimar is being built with hurricane resiliency in mind. There are 577 concrete pilings that have been driven into the ground below the foundations.

“The way we’re designing these buildings now is far different than they were designed 40 years ago,” Stevens said. “The whole building is a much harder construction than before.

“Impact doors, impact glass, walls and roof structure. Specialized turtle lighting because we’re on the beach. They have the soft touch of the environmentally friendly aspect, as well.”